Gov. Roy Cooper says Harris has ‘excellent’ chances in battleground North Carolina, will be helped by governor’s race

(WASHINGTON) — Over one-third of Gen Z are worried they’ll need to move away from their hometowns due to climate change — and a majority of those in the generation across the political spectrum said politicians need to be held accountable, according to a new poll out Wednesday from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation.

The findings come from a new report that looks at the way Gen Z — those born between 1997 to 2012 — is experiencing and worrying about water issues in the context of climate change — as well as who they believe is responsible to address them. It’s a snapshot from a larger report on the generation’s feelings on climate issues due out in a few months.

“[Gen Z] have been seeing water, and water and climate their whole lives,” Moira Mcdonald, program director for the Environment Program at the Walton Family Foundation, told ABC News. “Their lives have essentially been punctuated by these big moments — the Gulf oil spill back in 2010, the Flint, Michigan, drinking water crisis with lead in the water. They had everyday exposure to the rising seas and warming ocean issue the last few years.”

The poll found that among those in Gen Z who worry they’ll need to move due to climate change, 73% believe it will be because of a water issue such as water pollution, flooding risk, lack of access to clean drinking water and the risk of drought.

The poll also found that 31% of Gen Z are concerned their generation won’t have enough clean water in the future, 72% are concerned about pollution in their waterways and 66% are worried about the health of the fish and oceans.

Among voting age Gen Zers, the poll found that 88% believed politicians are responsible for addressing water issues related to climate change.

Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the youth-led climate advocacy organization Sunrise Movement, explained that young people want to see political action on climate issues.

“We have seen a climate change before our eyes for essentially our entire lives, and we look on to a future when we are the age of people like Joe Biden and Donald Trump with a lot of fear about what’s going to happen in the next 50 years,” O’Hanlon said. “Young people are demanding real action from politicians to stop the climate crisis and protect our rights to clean air and water.”

During the 2024 election cycle, climate change has not been polling as a top issue for U.S. voters across all age groups, but some, like Evergreen Action’s senior communications director Holly Burke, say that it may grow in political importance as Gen Z and younger generations age into the voting population.

“Only the eldest of Gen Z are currently able to vote and fully in the electorate and regularly voting. So I think we’re really only beginning to see this demographic shift, but I think it’s already had a huge impact,” Burke told ABC News, citing the political pressure from young activists that spurred national climate action investments including the Inflation Reduction Act.

“[Young climate activists have] already had some big successes, and I think as they become a bigger part of the electorate, they’re only going to become more influential,” she added.

Researchers found that worries around water — and more broadly around climate change — spanned the political spectrum.

Eighty-two percent of voting-age Gen Zers identifying as Republicans and 96% of those identifying as Democrats said they believe that politicians and governments are “very or somewhat responsible” for improving the quality of water resources, according to researchers.

Burke said climate advocacy has been a “deeply partisan” issue for a long time. But noted that she has seen a shift in Republicans’ willingness to engage on climate issues among young conservatives, but said she hasn’t yet seen that change in the larger party.

“I can’t imagine that Republicans are going to immediately come around to the kind of bold climate solutions that I’m looking for, but I would love to have them at the table in a real discussion about how we can reduce emissions and things we can agree on to get done,” she said. “That would be a tremendously positive change.”

Some young conservatives have banded together to push their party toward more engagement on climate issues. The American Conservation Coalition, a nonprofit organization made up of young political conservatives (aged 18-35), was founded in 2017 with a mission to, “build the conservative environmental movement.”

“Organizations like ACC that represent young conservatives who care about this issue send a pretty clear signal to our leaders that this is an issue that will continue to be really important,” ACC’s Vice President of Communications Karly Matthews told ABC News. “But I also think there’s a really rich history of environmental conservation in the conservative movement, in the Republican Party, and that was kind of not emphasized as much or lost a little bit when climate change became kind of this polarizing topic.”

Matthews said she agreed that climate issues “will continue to be depolarized, and I think that’ll be shown from the general populace of young people, kind of uniting on this issue.”

As for Mcdonald of the Walton Family Foundation, when asked by ABC News whether her organization’s research suggests change will move up the ranks of political priority as more of Gen Z reaches the voting age, she replied, “I have my fingers crossed.”

The poll, conducted online by researchers between Aug. 6-14, defined Gen Z as people aged 12 to 27 years old. The poll had a sample of 2,832 and a sampling error of +/- 2.9 points.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz both claim to be champions of gun rights for law-abiding citizens and have touted personal stories of growing up in households where firearms were commonplace, but the vice presidential candidates have vastly different views on how to curb America’s gun violence epidemic.

As the Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris has made gun control a top priority.

“We who believe that every person should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence, will finally pass red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban,” Harris said at her first presidential campaign rally in Milwaukee.

Harris was appointed in September 2023 by President Joe Biden to oversee the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

Meanwhile, there was little acknowledgment of the nation’s gun violence scourge at the Republican National Convention last month, despite GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump being the victim of a would-be assassin wielding an AR-15-style rifle.

In the 2024 GOP convention platform, there was no mention of firearm violence or gun control, while in 2020, the party’s platform contained three paragraphs supporting reciprocity legislation allowing Americans to carry firearms in all 50 states regardless of which state they received a carry permit, and opposing an assault weapons ban, “frivolous” lawsuits against gun manufacturers and “any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law.”

While Harris and Trump’s polarizing stances on gun control are well documented, the positions of their running mates are emerging for the first time on a national level.

Vance, the 40-year-old Ohio U.S. senator and Marine veteran, and Walz, the 60-year-old Minnesota governor and Army National Guard veteran, have portrayed themselves as strong Second Amendment advocates. But they have voiced starkly different views on gun control.

Vance’s stand on gun control

“I’m a big pro-Second Amendment guy and I know a lot of people who will strongly, stridently defend the Second Amendment. None of them think convicted felons, who have been afforded their due process rights should be able to buy firearms and then kill people,” Vance said during a June 2022 U.S. Senate election debate against his Democratic opponent, former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.

In a 2022 federal candidate survey for the Ohio Gun Owners and the American Firearms Association, Vance said he opposes “red flag” gun laws, legislation to ban certain semiautomatic rifles, including AR-15s; supports abolishing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and establishing a national stand-your-ground law giving individuals the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves.

Vance also checked yes on voting to repeal the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act and supported a national Second Amendment Preservation Act that prohibits the use of federal funds to enforce gun control laws, regulations and executive orders.

“We need to fix the system we have that has problems as opposed to layering on a bunch of new regulations and laws on top of it,” Vance said during the debate against Ryan. “The thing that I don’t like is when you create a new background check system with new sets of regulations that go after law-abiding citizens.”

The National Rifle Association — which according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit research and government transparency group that tracks money in politics and its effect on elections and policy — contributed nearly $500,000 to Vance’s senate campaign. The NRA has also endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket.

“Now, more than ever, freedom and liberty need courageous and virtuous defenders,” Doug Hamlin, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, said in a statement in July. “President Trump and Senator Vance have the guts and the grit to stand steadfast for the Second Amendment.”

In June 2024, Vance called efforts by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to ban bump stocks, a device that enables semiautomatic rifles to fire almost like machine guns, a “huge distraction.”

The gunman who committed the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and left more than 800 injured, used guns fitted with bump stocks, according to investigators.

“I think that we have to ask ourselves: ‘What is the real gun violence problem in this country?’ and are we legislating in a way that solves fake problems? Or solves real problems?” Vance told reporters in June as his name was then being floated as Trump’s running mate. “And my very strong suspicion is that the Schumer legislation is aimed at a PR problem, not something that’s going to meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country.”

While he wasn’t a member of the U.S. Senate at the time, Vance said he would have voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety law enacted in 30 years that Biden signed in June 2022, about a month after a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The law enhances background checks for gun buyers under 21, closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent people convicted of domestic abuse from purchasing guns, and allocates $750 million to help states implement “red flag laws” to remove firearms from people deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.

“First of all, from what I’ve seen of this bill, I would not support it. I think red flag laws, in particular, they certainly are a slippery slope. They also don’t solve the problem of gun violence,” Vance said in a 2022 interview with the Breitbart News Daily podcast.

During his RNC acceptance speech, Vance — author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” — told the story of how after the death of his beloved grandmother, whom he called Mamaw, his family found 19 loaded guns in her house.

“The thing is, they were stashed all over her house — under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on,” Vance said. “It occurred to us that toward the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around so well, so she was sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm’s length of whatever she needed to protect her family. That’s who we fight for. That’s the American spirit.”

Walz’s stand on gun control

Walz, a former high school geography teacher and football coach, has proudly proclaimed being an avid hunter who once received an A-rating and an endorsement from the National Rifle Association while a five-term Congressman from rural Minnesota. As a member of Congress, Walz sponsored the Sportsman’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, which expanded access to public lands for hunting and supported legislation to reform the ATF.

“I’m proud to stand with the NRA to protect our Second Amendment rights, and I’m truly grateful for their endorsement,” Walz said in a 2010 statement.

In 2016, Guns & Ammo magazine praised Walz’s record on protecting gun rights and put him on a list of top 20 politicians for gun owners.

“While most congressional Democrats have jumped on the gun control train with both feet, Tim Walz and a few others have stuck to their guns,” Guns & Ammo wrote.

But Walz said his NRA rating fell to an F-rating when his stance on gun control dramatically changed following the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 15 students and two adults, including a football coach, dead.

“My job today is to be dad to a 17-year-old daughter,” Walz said during a 2018 community meeting in Minnesota while running for governor in the aftermath of the Parkland massacre. “Hope woke up as many of you did five weeks ago and said, ‘Dad, you’re the only person I know who’s in elected office. You need to stop what’s happening with this.'”

In an editorial he wrote that was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in February 2018 — which was titled “Tim Walz: Please understand my full record on guns” — Walz explained how the Parkland shooting forced him to reevaluate his positions on gun control.

“We all put ourselves in the place of a loved one or someone who faced that terror. It hits me as the dad of a fifth-grader and a high-school student. It hits me as a former high school geography teacher and football coach, when I think about the geography teacher and the coach at that school who gave their lives so that their students could keep theirs.”

Walz said he donated the $18,000 campaign contribution he received in his 2018 gubernatorial run from the NRA, to a charity that helps families of military personnel killed or injured while serving and came out in favor of an assault weapons ban.

In a Star Tribune editorial, he also said that during his time in Congress, he supported “common-sense” gun-control reform laws, repeatedly voted in favor of universal background checks and preventing people on no-fly lists from purchasing firearms. He also said he supported legislation to fund gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was a co-sponsor of a bill to ban bump stocks and voted against concealed-carry reciprocity.

Walz also confronted the NRA, writing in the editorial that the organization is “the biggest single obstacle to passing the most basic measures to prevent gun violence in America — including common-sense solutions that the majority of NRA members support.”

As governor, Walz signed in May 2023 a historic suite of gun-safety measures that created red flag laws, extended the waiting period for gun transfers between parties from 7 to 10 days and expanded background checks to include private purchases between individuals, including those made at gun shows. The laws also require anyone buying a pistol or “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons” to apply for a permit to purchase or carry such guns from their local police agency or sheriff’s department.

“As a veteran, gun-owner, hunter, and dad, I know basic gun safety isn’t a threat to the Second Amendment — it’s about keeping our kids safe,” Walz said during a ceremony to sign the gun legislation. “There’s no place for weapons of war in our schools, churches, banks, or anywhere else people are just trying to live their lives. Today is about taking meaningful action to create a safer future for our kids, and I am proud to sign this commonsense, life-saving legislation into law.”

‘The number one killer of our generation’

Timberlyn Mazeikis, who endured a Feb. 13, 2023, mass shooting at Michigan State University that left three of her classmates dead and five others injured, told ABC News that for her and many other Gen Z members the choice in this election “is simple.”

“Gun violence is the leading cause of death in our generation, and for a lot of us, we can no longer sit by and continue to watch this happen and just wait for the next massacre to occur. Because of that, we are showing up to vote,” said 21-year-old Mazeikis, now a senior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Mazeikis, who will be voting in her first presidential election in November, said the MSU mass shooting “took a toll on me” as she recounted being barricaded in the school gym for hours, terrified that the shooter would burst through the doors at any minute.

After the shooting, she became a volunteer leader for Students Demand Action, an organization that fights for gun control legislation.

“I felt that I could no longer sit back and watch as further communities were destroyed by gun violence,” Mazeikis said. “And that experience of being on campus and the fear that I felt that day and losing my classmates and my sense of security has really worked as a catalyst to push me in this movement and to realize that we can no longer live this way.”

She said that while she views Trump and Vance as a “gun extremist dream ticket,” she said Harris and Walz have given her “hope.”

“The choice is simple. Our lives are on the line,” Mazeikis said. “We either go back with Trump and Vance or we go forward with Harris and Walz.”

Mazeikis also said Walz’s transformation from a strong pro-gun politician into one who now favors sensible gun regulations doesn’t concern her, saying, “his stance on gun violence prevention is one of strength and one of courage to change.”

“He is living proof that the gun lobby and the gun industry are lying to us, that you can be a responsible gun owner and still want to keep your community safe and believe in gun safety,” Mazeikis said.

However, Rob Doar, vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus — the largest gun rights group in Minnesota with more than 10,000 dues-paying members — told ABC News that he’s been following Walz’s policies and actions on guns for about a decade and was surprised he was picked to be Harris’ running mate.

“Initially, my thought was that it was not a good pick if the goal of the campaign was to try to appeal to maybe disaffected Republicans and moderates, just because he has had some flip-flopping on contentious issues like firearms,” Doar said. “But then as I saw more of the campaign strategy roll out, it seems like the goal has been to more highlight him as an example of what progressive leaders can do. In that vein, I think that he’s probably serving the campaign very well, given the high number of progressive policies that Minnesota’s passed recently.”

Doar said his organization does not endorse presidential candidates and noted that his members don’t necessarily like Trump.

“I think both tickets have problematic histories as far as a Second Amendment standpoint goes. Donald Trump was a huge advocate for the bump stock ban. Donald Trump made quotes like, ‘to take the guns first and then get due process second,’ and he’s made some other statements that have been fairly anti-Second Amendment,” Doar said. “On the other hand, you’ve got Kamala Harris, who is talking about, initially, mandatory gun buybacks for certain types of firearms. She has walked that back a little bit, but I think both tickets, as far as somebody who looks at the Second Amendment as their primary issue at the polls, have some problems.”

He said Vance’s “posturing” on gun rights is something a lot of Second Amendment supporters like.

“But these are the same kind of things that we heard out of Tim Walz when he was a representative in the first district [of Minnesota],” Doar said. “Unfortunately, JD Vance just doesn’t have the longevity of a political career to be able to back up the words that he’s saying, but I do think the way that he’s positioning himself is a way that might appeal to those who value the Second Amendment when they go to the polls.”

He said many of his group’s members have expressed concern about keeping the current conservative majority of the Supreme Court intact.

“I do hear a lot from our members that they don’t like Trump, but the sole reason they’re voting for him is because of the Supreme Court and for federal judicial nominations. So that’s not an unpopular sentiment among gun rights advocates,” Doar said. “I do think that the general consensus is that Trump would be much more favorable from a Second Amendment jurisprudence standpoint in his judicial appointments.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said on Monday the Secret Service “needs more help” as he briefly addressed the apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump while departing the White House.

Speaking to reporters before boarding Marine One, Biden said, “Thank God the president’s OK.”

“One thing I want to make clear, the [Secret] Service needs more help and I think the Congress should respond to their needs, if in fact they need more services,” Biden added. He said he believed the agency may need more personnel.

Secret Service agents accompanying Trump fired at a man armed with an AK-47-style rifle on or near the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday. The FBI said it is investigating the matter as a possible assassination attempt. The incident comes just two months after the former president was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump thanked law enforcement, including the Secret Service, for keeping him safe during the incident.

Biden, in a written statement in Sunday, also commended the Secret Service and their partners “for their vigilance and their efforts to keep the former President and those around him safe” and denounced political violence.

“There is an active investigation into this incident as law enforcement gathers more details about what happened,” Biden said. “As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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